introduction, and question...

[Guest guest]

Hello,

 

My name is Todd Caldecott, and I'm new to this list. I am a clinical herbalist

and practicing Ayurvedic clinician, holding a diploma in Clinical Herbal

medicine and having received my training in Ayurvedic medicine in India.

Currently I am director of Clinical Herbal Studies at Wild Rose College of

Natural Healing in Calgary, AB (Canada) where I am developing thye material and

supervising the administration of a 3 yr clinical program in Western herbal

medicine. I am also a professional member of the American Herbalists Guild, and

a frequent contributor to the Guild's journal. Currently, I am just finishing

an introductory textbook on Ayurvedic medicine, which should be published next

year some time. I would also like to take this opportunity to invite all of you

interested in Ayurvedic medicine and natural healing to my website

(www.wrc.net/phyto), which has much interesting and useful information on

Ayurvedic and herbal medicine.

 

To kick things off, I'd like to ask a question of all you Ayurveda experts. The

herb Shatavari (Asparagus racemosa) is often transliterated as "one hundred

husbands," the problem being that "vari" in fact means water, so I'm curious as

to the origin of transliteration. An alternate transliteration in Dr. KH

Krishnamurthy's text "Wealth of Sushruta" for Shatavari is "one hundred whorls,"

which according to the namarupavijnana (knowledge of name and morphology)

component of the branch of Ayurveda called Dravyguna (pharmacology), makes a

little more sense because the leaves are in fact arranged in dense whorls.

Still, this is not an exact transliteration. Knowing that Sanskrit is a rich

language, with many meanings, I'd appreciate an informed perspective on this

issue.

 

best wishes to all

Caldecott

www.wrc.net/phyto